OFTHEHILLPEOPLE

Fredrix

MRCJ

I am listening on you tube. As a counter point to Storks assertion that you need dialogue to have a fully fleshed movie. Here is a world without dialog that there is so much depth people still touch it.
This version is re-scored, but I like the cleaned up visuals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCDQzGTBA3E Metropolis

warTever

I wrote in about being declared a necromancer, long before using Dark Magic.
The on-air discussion focused on the suprise-mechanics. I added it as a referense EA's announcement of surprise mechanics only days before writing-in. It didn't play a large part in the outcome.

My issue was with the meta-knowledge.
Does knowing evil deeds make you evil or does it make you the opposite for activly resisting its temptaions.
Being called necromacer was like being called murderer for knowing how to swing a sword.

Wahammer-necromancers have a skillset good for 3 things. Raising dead, avoiding persecution and fending of other necromancers. As he was dead set on hunting down everything undead, that last part seemed like a useful suprise to spring in a dire sitation. I was not..

whodo

warTever So I don't know the Warhammer setting as well as the 40k setting but my understanding is that it is one of those worlds where just knowing things is enough to begin corrupting the soul and inviting temptation.

Now from your email I would say the GM probably went too far with it, I'd have led with dreams, nightmares and regular situations where using the knowledge would make life so much easier as a continued temptation. Use it and become more corrupted.

d47

Alverant

I have a question. In the episode you talked about facing discrimination because a player chose to play a half-orc. So how is that different than a GM deciding it's OK to have a character face harassment because the player chose to play a female. I'm asking because the GM wrote back:

I'm not harassing you, guys are harassing [my character], but again, that's called Role-playing. But, you play an attractive woman and go to Vegas, the sin capital of the world, and walk the streets in a skin tight outfit, you're going to get hit on. Again, my question stands, why do you want to play a female character if you don't want to have to deal with anything women have to deal with? Otherwise you're just playing a guy with boobs.

I just wanted to try something different. If I had known the GM would include that kind of "realism", I might have chosen differently.

chronovore

In the case of Half-Orcs, in addition to being a non-existent fantasy race with no IRL history of oppression, it was mentioned in the podcast that the player was excited to have the back-and-forth exchange of insults and opportunity to act out against overt oppression. The player had agency in the kind of challenges that confronted them.

In contrast, you’ve made it clear to the GM that the oppression and objectification are not part of what you want your roleplaying experience to include; in response, he’s stepped right past that boundary and then told you why you’re wrong for wanting it. He’s crossed your boundaries, and told you he’s going to continue doing it.

At a social gathering, if a guest stepped forward and started telling you sexist (or racist, or homophobic, or transphobic) jokes, you can tell the person, “Hey, I don’t like that kind of humor!” If they insist on continuing telling you jokes which make you uncomfortable, you’d probably leave. So in this group, social setting, what’s different? The power structure; it’s generally accepted that the GM is running the game and the GM’s word is final. But what if the GM’s a jerkface?

Kairaku

The difference is that the species-ism with the half-orcs was discussed before hand and the player was fine with it...once again showing the value of having a session zero. Also the amount of anti half-orc sentiment was not very high in the AP. I think it amounted to a couple of insults and maybe them living in a segregated part of the city, and that wasn't dwelled upon.

In contrast, no discussion and you have specifically asked him to stop...not to have a defensive aggressive arsehole debate.
His "you're asking for it wearing that..." comment is what thousands of privillaged arseholes have used for hundreds of years as a defense. It is the same excuse that it was the woman's fault for being raped that is argued in many countries even today. FUCK THAT SHIT!

Ask him why he insists on portraying and empowering an anacronistic disgusting view of the world and suggest the reason he is holding to it so hard is he believes this bullshit is the way it should be.

Advise him that holding up his abusive attidute to his wife, even in game, as a shining light of roleplaying is a disgusting example of mysogony. It has nothing to do with good roleplaying and everything to do with his wimpy dreams of dominance! And then tell him "FUCK OFF! You small minded piece of donkey excrement!"

Vent over...rage subsiding...for now

BattleMatt

Kairaku And then tell him "FUCK OFF! You small minded piece of donkey excrement!"

I second this statement. 👍 This story makes my blood boil.

Kairaku

tomes

I made some note to myself about this episode to reply to later... specifically about the first question about evocative depth and playing in a world "concrete actions we can take as GM's to create that kind of depth" with unanswered questions and tantalizing peaks etc. etc. Some answers included descriptive descriptions and such. Stu mentioned Firefly and how there are unanswered questions (like the Chinese slang), Stork mentioned Star Wars unanswered questions, etc.

Not sure exactly how relevant it is, because it's been a while since I listened to the episode, and so unsure if my notes are off point, but I'll mention a few things:

Background music is a way to create some evocative feels around a scene, event, etc. Of course that can be complex because you don't want it distracting, but choosing those tracks is a bit of an art and science.

Candles for smell could also provide a mood. I have a friend who lights different candles when they play games, even online, just for themselves! But a face-to-face gathering would have that benefit for everyone (as long as it isn't something that people find unpleasant). This is a company that sells at Strategicon; I just bought some this last con to try out: https://www.cantripcandles.com/product-page/dungeon-depths.

I know Stork was talking about descriptions - and it was great the way he was weaving the various senses - but I know that personally as a player I will get overwhelmed at a point about all the descriptive stuff, and I'm more of a collaborative storyteller, wanting to also participate. I've mentioned it before, but Painting the Scene is a great technique where instead of a GM building all the description, you take advantage of the player's imagination (and therefore get their buy-in and investment) by having them answer specific, leading questions that flavor a location or character or other game thing.

Ayslyn

tomes Stu mentioned Firefly and how there are unanswered questions (like the Chinese slang)

The Chinese Slang was explained in the extended universe stuff. When we left the Earth, it was in a couple of massive ships. English speakers and Chinese speakers were the two largest populations, so the default became a sort of mixed language.

chronovore

One of the best things in the original trilogy was just how many unanswered questions there were. It made the galaxy feel so full and rich, even though they could have been anything. Who were Bothans? Was there really a base on Dantooine, or is Leia just intentionally mispronouncing Tatooine? We visit Mos Eisley, but Luke mentioned Tachi Station (a fine companion name to Obi-Wan) - is it just a fuel station in the middle of nowhere? We never know, and that's kind of great.

In contrast, the larger sin of both the Prequels and the recent Solo movie is basically trying to sort out all those loose ends. In Solo, we are plainly shown the origin of every detail of Han's life, from his Chance Dice to his Imperial Pilot trousers to his blaster, to his ill-fated contract with a Hutt on Tatooine. No mystery remains. And in the Prequels, we find out everyone is everyone else's dad. Qui-Gon is Obi-Wan's surrogate dad, so Obi-Wan surrogate dads Anakin. Jango Fett is Boba Fett's dad. Anakin is Luke and Leia's dad (OK we knew that) but he's also See-Threepio's dad. Even Greedo gets son'd by a fellow urchin.

Explaining too much is worse for a story than letting the audience engage it on their own terms, and in their own imagination, birth new things never even dreamt of in the original creator's mind.

whodo

Ayslyn It was also implied that the Alliance was originally an alliance of China and the US. During a few campaigns I elaborated on that to say that in the core you actually had two separate spheres of influence, with half the planets originally being settled by descendants of the US factions and the other half being descended from the Chinese sphere of influence.

Fredrix

Indeed. (I don’t want to be a bore on this, but I did us3d to write for the award winning Firefly fancast, the Signal). You can see the union of the US and the PRC in the Anglo-sino alliance branding on the crates in The Train Job, the second (and first broadcast) pilot episode. Shinon and Londinum were the first two planets settled, Londinum the centre of the Anglic population and Shinon, the putonghua speaking peoples.

But the key point, this isn’t stuff the players need to know in their first adventure. All they need to know is “Here's how it is: Earth got used up, so we terraformed a whole new galaxy of Earths, some rich and flush with the new technologies,
some not so much. Central Planets, them was formed the Alliance, waged war to bring everyone under their rule; a few idiots tried to fight it, among them myself. I'm Malcolm Reynolds, captain of Serenity. Got a good crew: fighters, pilot, mechanic. We even picked up a preacher, and a bona fide companion. There's a doctor, too, took his genius
sister out of some Alliance camp, so they're keeping a low profile. You got a job, we can do it, don't much care what it is.” Indeed. A lot of this sort of the detail should really be brought to the table by the players themselves.

d47

d47 I was able to download it with a different app. Probably was a caching issue on my phone.